Thursday, November 5, 2009

An excellent litttle run in my road to fitness. It felt good. I mostly ran at 8:41/mile. My stride feels most comfortable right now at 8:15 or so, but I held back.

The girl on the treadmill next to me was kicking out a slightly faster 8:34 pace for maybe six miles. The temptation of this red-blooded American male was to quicken my pace to something in the 7s, until she finished her workout. The risk was that she would run another five miles, beyond my ability to maintain my show-off pace, and the next day would be an ache-fest.

The psychology of a long run is complicated. I have long runs behind me; I know what 15 miles means. Tonight, and yesterday too, it felt long. Not that I was tired. I wasn't, and could have gone another three miles as far as 'tired' goes. I chose not to as I build my miles. Faster too. I'm burning fat, and building those blessed little capillaries. My mental endurance is weak. My lungs were cool. My legs, somewhat. But my mind? Not so much. In younger years, resilience of mind was a strength. I had plenty of fight. Eventually, distances like four or four miles will seem short.

I intended to listen to the Chariots of Fire (my movie review) soundtrack's (my CD review) long theme. It is 20:40, long enough to get me halfway through my run. It was not in my running playlist on my iPod and I didn't feel like fumbling through to find it elsewhere. Next time.

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Easy going run. Needed it after a frustrating day with my computer bonking off for no apparent reason. Kept it steady for 3.5 miles, then lopped up a notch that last half.

It was really at Twilight. Just thought I'd toss in a nice pop reference to a movie I'll never see.
Not sure if you can see this, but here's a list of running-related members I follow on Twitter:http://twitter.com/#/list/AnthonyTrendl/running